bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

Did a newborn "rainbow baby" shoot last weekend. Grandparents want me to take a photo from the stillborn session from a year and a half ago(hardest thing I've ever done), and work it into a photo with the newborn "Rainbow baby" (after every storm, there is a rainbow.... not my saying, but it's what they wanted) I am dreading even going back to the stillborn photos. They admitted that they haven't opened the disk since I gave it to them.

I'm actually at a loss. Other than returning to 80s with the double exposure on black with the "ghost image" (which seems very creepy) of the stillborn in the corner, and the newborn as the main subject.....how does one work something like this. Has anyone done anything close (maybe not with a stillborn, but with a relative who has passed) and found a way to make it beautiful, and not creepy?

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

I have a few suggestions but I am not in the studio today...big job. I'll be back Sunday and will post.

HAPPY EASTER! 😀 Ed

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

Hi- I'm home- I hope you are enjoying the spring holiday season!

OK- tough assignemnt for sure- I know exactly what you mean! I look at theses things this way: Many of my clients come to me for photography of joyous occasions and events. Every now and again the come with with sadness, tragedy, and bereavement. Especially when it comes to seriously ill, dying and deceased children- I find it difficult to deal with but I manage with the attitude that whatever I produce for them gives them solace, pace and memorialization of someone close to them, I am doing something positive and kind and that will be appreciated. This may sound weird, but I find it ghoulish to take money for theses jobs and usually did them without fees or at cost like in the case of a day-long funeral coverage. I tell the clients that I will be glad to accept their money in the future on joyous occasions.

I have been called in to photograph funerals, asked to photograph the dead in their caskets, stillborn babies and little kids in palliative care units and attached to life-support equipment. It's heart wrenching but we have to work our way through it and serve our clients.

Sometimes, I am asked to combine these image of a deceased person with a current image- a wedding photograph, a family portrait or a newly made portrait. As you mention, it is had to create something that is not a bit morbid, "spooky" ghost-like or 1980s kinda chintzy. What I do is attempt to carry out the customer's ideas in a more subtle manner. A bride asked me to "superimpose" an image of her late father on one of wedding ceremony pictures.-talk about ghosts! Instead I restored and framed an image of the dad it. I made a window-lighted image of her, in a quiet moment before the ceremony, holding the picture frame in her hand- her eyes downcast towards the image which clearly showed. Her expression and a tear on her cheek, told the story- it was one of the first images in her album.

For your assignment, perhaps that "rainbow" theme will serve you well. Rainbows occur after storms.The "storm" representing the loss and the rainbow representing a happier time. If a montage can be created where a rainbow will extend from the lost baby toward the living baby with the typography appearing somewhere in the image, this might work well.

Sometimes it hard to figure out what folks want to express in theses cases. I have found that there are different traditions, customs, beliefs, philosophies and even superstitions when it regards, death and the afterlife in various religious, cultural and social groups. Some of this stuff may seem very morbid or macabre to me, so I just try to get into their head-space. Much of theses feelings are very universal when you get right down to basics.

I'm sure you will do a good job for you client.

Let me know how you are gonna handle it.

bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

Hey Ed. I downloaded the stillborn images last night. I have to say, unfortunately, I wasn't given much to work with. A huge issue is that, as you know, sometimes the skin slides off, and in this case, it did during the birth process, so a lot had to be hidden. I'm going to do it in black and white, so the cheeks and forehead don't look so "bloody" (missing skin layers) Even then, I'm going to have to try to match the blood red with the skin tones a bit more, so it won't look so awful.

My first thought is to do the little feet or hands, and put it with a shot of the feet or hands of the recent newborn shoot. I'll experiment with the rainbow (very subtle, since it will be a monochrome photo, and you know how colors, even subtle ones, jump off the page when it's black and white.

Thanks for your input. It sure is a struggle, but because it's important to one of my families, it's important to me to do a good job.

CaptainC Loc: Colorado, south of Denver

I have done way too many of these. As I think you know, I am a volunteer for Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep (nilmdts.org). The conversion to monochrome is an absolute necessity. For evening out skin tones, try using the Clone Stamp - set it to Lighten and an opacity of about 30-40%. Then sample from the lighter areas and stamp into the darker areas. This means the tool only lightens areas that are darker than the sampled area. THEN change and set the mode to Darken and do the reverse—sample from darker areas and clone into lighter areas. If the effect is too strong, reduce tool opacity to 20%. By alternating, this will help even the tones.

The Clone Stamp, Healing Brush, andPatch tool will all help[ repairing missing skin. Takes some patience as it is detail work, but keep at it.

I also use the plug-in Portraiture by Imagenomic to help event the skin. works great.

bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

[quote=CaptainC]I have done way too many of these. As I think you know, I am a volunteer for Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep (nilmdts.org). The conversion to monochrome is an absolute necessity. For evening out skin tones, try using the Clone Stamp - set it to Lighten and an opacity of about 30-40%. Then sample from the lighter areas and stamp into the darker areas. This means the tool only lightens areas that are darker than the sampled area. THEN change and set the mode to Darken and do the reverse—sample from darker areas and clone into lighter areas. If the effect is too strong, reduce tool opacity to 20%. By alternating, this will help even the tones.

The Clone Stamp, Healing Brush, andPatch tool will all help[ repairing missing skin. Takes some patience as it is detail work, but keep at it.

I also use the plug-in Portraiture by Imagenomic to help event the skin. works great.[/quote]

Thanks Cliff.
Have you had requests to do the composite of the stillborn with a newborn? I think the thing that kills me about it is, I literally hate those ghost images from the 80's, but can't really think of a way to put in such a damaged baby, and even if I did that, I feel that it will look like the newborn is dreaming of the stillborn, which feels so creepy to me.

I'm just praying that the family likes my idea of using the hands or feet. (the hands were in a little better shape, but the feet would be a little easier to work with)

I've seen the work that nilmdts.org does, and it's just amazing. This was my first, and hopefully last assignment, and I do wish I knew then what I know now, like the fact that it was OK to bring in light. The room was VERY dark (and somber, as one would expect) I do admit, that although I'm EXTREMELY comfortable handling newborns, and posing them safely, I was afraid to even touch the stillborn little girl. The photos just aren't very good, and it makes me sad to even look at them now. The nurse was great, though. I'm just not sure how they (and you) handle it so well. I didn't sleep for quite some time.

It takes very special people to do what you do, and I am in awe of your talent, and what you are doing for these families.